Iceland has dropped its bid to join the European Union, the Foreign Ministry in Reykjavik says. The announcement follows pledges made by the country’s euro-skeptic government since winning the 2013 election.

Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, the Icelandic foreign minister, said in a statement that he had informed Latvia, the current EU president, and the European Commission that his center-right government had decided to withdraw its application, which was submitted six years ago.

“The EU and Iceland have discussed the country’s position on the status of its bid to join the European Union,” the statement reads. “The government does not intend to resume preparing for EU membership.” Continue reading »

Icelandic Foreign Minister Jon Hannibalsson has outlined the reasons why the North Atlantic nation will not be joining the EU.

Despite formal negotiations on the country’s accession into the EU starting back in 2010, citizens were widely split on whether it would be a positive move, and the ruling coalition government was voted into power in 2013 on the promise that it would abandon the talks. Continue reading »

While on the one hand, Iceland’s decision to inch towards lifting its capital controls is a positive step, it appears what they give with one hand they are taking with another. Just as we predicted three years ago, the muddle-through has failed and there are only hard choices left and sure enough BCG’s envisioned ‘wealth tax’ appears to be rearing its ugly head once more. As Morgunbladid reports, Iceland plans to impose an exit tax as part of removing capital controls, anticipating all bank assets will be subject to the levy, regardless of whether assets are held in local (ISK) or foreign exchange.

As Bloomberg reports,

Iceland’s plan to impose an exit tax as part of removing capital controls anticipates all bank assets will be subject to levy, regardless of whether assets are held in ISK or FX, Morgunbladid reports without saying how it obtained the information.

Part of program may also include forcing foreign holders of ISK assets to swap ISK at discount to a 30-yr FX bond; bond to carry interest rate less than 3%: Morgunbladid Continue reading »

With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has now set America on the path toward open rebellion and revolt. By declaring that he alone has the right to dictate immigration policy without the legislative approval of Congress, he has committed yet another lawless act in a long series of illegal schemes that cement his position in history as nothing more than a sociopathic liar and destroyer of nations.…

President Barack Obama announced an executive order on immigration reform Thursday, which he will sign on Friday. The actions will affect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants in the US, many of whom are the parents or spouses of legal residents.

Obama announced his plan for unilateral action on immigration via a prime-time address from the White House. He will sign the executive order during a rally in Las Vegas on Friday. Because the plan will not be passed by Congress, it could also be easily reversed by a new president after Obama’s term runs out in just over two years.

…

“Accidental discharge”…:

BREAKING: New York City police commissioner says “accidental discharge” from police officer’s weapon may have killed man in Brooklyn.

His latest intervention on behalf of the forces of opacity, revolves around the release of a report on CI.A. torture put together by The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is 6,000 pages long and has been five years in the making. Naturally, the Obama Administration is taking painstaking efforts to block its release.

A week ago, we penned “The Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed“, in which we got, for the first time ever, an admission by an official source, namely the bank that knows everything that takes place in Germany – Deutsche Bank – what the real reason was for Germany’s gold repatriation halt after obtaining a meager 5 tons from the NY Fed:

… the gold community paid great attention to the decision of the German Bundesbank to “bring German gold home”. At the beginning of 2013, the Bundesbank announced it would repatriate 300 tonnes of gold stored in the US by 2020. It is well behind schedule, citing logistical difficulties. Yet diplomatic difficulties are more likely to be the chief cause of the delay, especially seeing as the Bundesbank has proven its capacity to organise large-scale gold transports. In the early 2000s, the Bundesbank incrementally repatriated 930 tonnes of German gold held by the Bank of England.

Some took offense with this, pointing out, accurately, that the gold held at the NY Fed in deposit form for foreign institutions had continued to decline into 2014 despite the alleged German halt. Well, today we know the answer: it wasn’t Germany who was secretly withdrawing gold from the NYFed contrary to what it had publicly disclosed.

In December 1912, no lessor man than J.P.Morgan testified to Congress to “justify Wall Street,” during investigations over alleged manipulation and collusion. The transcript reads like it could have been given yesterday (as nothing ever changes) but at its heart the banker laid out 33 “Morgan Epigrams” which appear – in the ensuing 102 years – have been lost to greed and arrogance… The irony is wondrous: “Securities do not always prove good”, “Money is gold, and nothing else”, “I think manipulation is always bad.”

The CIA wants to erase tens of thousands of internal emails sent by most covert and counterterror officers after they leave the agency, leading US senators and transparency advocates to fear the plan would mean the loss of vital government records.

It isn’t just our economy that is crumbling. Something is happening to America that no amount of money will be able to fix. Everywhere around us we can see evidence of the social decay that is systematically eating away at the foundations of our society.

The impossible is possible. Never say never. Wall Street bankers are staring agog at headlines coming from Europe where, in Iceland, the former chief executive of one of the largest banks in the country which was involved in crashing the economy in 2008 has been sentenced to jail time. As Valuewalk reports, in receiving a one year prison sentence, Sigurjon Arnason officially became the first bank executive to be convicted of manipulating the bank’s stock price and deceiving investors, creditors and the authorities between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 2008, as the bank’s fortunes unwound, crashing the economy with it. It appears he was as shocked by the verdict as Wall Street-ers are, “this sentence is a big surprise to me as I did nothing wrong.” It was likely all for the people’s own good…

A homemade sign proclaiming “AIDS, Ebola, Obama – Thanks Africa” caused a commotion in the town of Minden, Nebraska this week after a local man drew the ire of area residents when he erected it on his own property.

For America’s 44 million senior citizens, plus tens of millions of others who are on the threshold of retirement, last month marked a watershed moment that is worth celebrating. At the end of October, the Federal Reserve announced the first step in returning to a more normal monetary policy. After nearly six years of near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing, the Fed is ending its bond-buying program and has signaled a plan to eventually begin raising the federal-funds rate, raising interest rates to more normal levels by 2017.

U.S. households lost billions in interest income during the Fed’s near-zero interest rate experiment.

The mayor of Jerusalem has called on Israeli authorities to revoke the citizenship of family members of terrorists. This proposal was made in response to growing tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

KING 5 News, Oct 14, 2014: Gary Sall… [worked at Hanford] for 28 years… 10 years ago… his brain function got worse and worse. Within 5 years he… could barely speak, hallucinated, and operated on the level of a 4-year-old… Doctors diagnosed him with work-related toxic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disorder… [His wife] Barb documented the suffering in a difficult to watch video taken in 2011… in a hospital bed, trembling and frightened and on a feeding tube… The DOE’s insurer wrote that not Hanford, but alcohol consumption or a B-12 deficiency could be making him sick… He died 3 years ago at the age of 57.

A bitter war of words between hacker collective Anonymous and the Klu Klux Klan risks spilling over into real violence, with the right-wing hate group allegedly threatening to shoot dead activists wearing the Guy Fawkes mask in southern Missouri.

Around 30 percent of the world’s population is now obese, while 50 percent is expected to fall into the category by 2030. Meanwhile, 5 percent of global deaths each year are linked to the condition, creating a drag on the global economy.

Despite the knee-trembling awesomeness of a double-whammy promise of liquidity, US equity markets ended the week on a decidedly down note. The realization that Draghi’s all talk (no impact on US stocks) and PBOC’s move is not a liquidity surge and has limited impact on the economy left stocks tumbling once the opening OPEX levels had printed. The USD rose notably on the day after EUR plunged under 1.24 on Draghi (USD +0.9% on the week). Despite USD strength, gold rose 1% (as did Silver) on the week, rising for the 3rd week in a row for the first time in 4 months (and the 3rd Friday surge in a row). Oil rose 1% on the week, breaking an 8-week losing streak but Copper prices fell around 0.3% on the week, having given back the kneejerk gains post-PBOC today. Treasury yields dropped after kneejerking higher on PBOC. 30Y at 3.01% had its 2nd lowest weekly close since May 2013. VIX melted down into the close to 13.01. Late-day buying panic lifts stocks off their lows leaving Dow & S&P at all-time recordest highs of all-time ever in history (as small caps closed red).

I stumbled across two mind blowing charts yesterday that had me pondering how generations of Americans had frittered their lives away, spending money they didn’t have on things they didn’t need, utilizing easy to acquire debt, and saving virtually nothing for their futures or a rainy day. We are a nation of Peter Pans who never grew up. While I was driving home from work, one of my favorite Pink Floyd tunes came on the radio and the lyrics to Time seemed to fit perfectly with the charts I had just discovered.

This is the first in MKTSTK’sHFT War Stories series. Submitted anonymously by a high frequency trader. Names of people, places, and products have been omitted:

Algo trading has a way of making your hair turn white. Sometimes it’s the wild market action. The response then is to cut risk and keep on trading. The big losses come from avoidable human errors. Those are the losses you might not come back from.

The trading world is increasingly automated. Every year there are fewer human eyes watching the market at any given time. Traders employ algorithms to cut latency and market impact. Dealers find automation indispensable in quoting thousands of different exchange traded derivatives.

After a frosty reception at the G20 summit in Australia this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin required some much needed rest, at least according to the official explanation given for his conspicuously early departure from the proceedings. All things considered it could have been a lot worse. Russia finds itself in familiar territory after a controversial half-year, highlighted by the bloody and still unresolved situation in Ukraine. Nonetheless, the prospect of further sanctions looms low and Russia’s stores of oil and gas remain high.

While some might scoff at the idea of there even being a bubble in hi-tech start-ups, it appears the massive wall of money that has been thrown at dot-com 2.0 names – all money-losing, social, mobile, cloud name-droppers – has dried up. As The TechCrunch Bubble Index shows, the last 90 days have seen startup-funding announcements collapse over 40% to their lowest level in almost 3 years…

First Mario Draghi made some strong statements speaking in Asia that “It is essential to bring back inflation to target and without delay,” which sent EURUSD tumbling BUT did not spark moves in the S&P 500 (though Gold slipped). It was not until the PBOC cut rates (and sent AUD surging) that the US equity market perked up and started ripping… along with gold and as the morning progressed, gold has kept going as it is clear the Central Banks of the world have only one policy left… (no wonder the Dutch want their gold back)

The kids at the Graenuvellir kindergarten in Husavik, north Iceland, were kept inside on Nov. 4 to protect them from sulfur-dioxide gases spewing from the Holuhraun lava field near the Bardarbunga volcano, says this article on bloomberg.com.

“The eruption has been going for almost three months and shows no sign of stopping. Red-hot lava now covers 70 sq. km. (27 sq. miles), an area larger than Manhattan. Continue reading »

Robust activity has been seen in the Holuhraun lava eruption this morning, says volcanologist Armann Hoskuldsson who is monitoring the event. “The highest lava fountains rise up to 130 meters from the craters,” he says. The new lava field is now estimated to be 11 – 12 square kilometers in size. Continue reading »

Remember Iceland? During the high-flying early 2000s, its three main banks went berserk, paying high interest rates to international investors that accumulated deposits equal to more than 100% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and making loans equal to 980% of GDP. When the collapse came, Iceland took a route not taken by Ireland, Spain, and other EU countries: Rather than bail out the banks, the government simply let them go bankrupt. The value of the krona fell by about half, the country was embroiled in disputes with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom over paying off Dutch and British depositors, and it had to take an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan just to stay afloat. Continue reading »

While Iceland’s serene landscape may be the perfect analogy for world markets currently, the eruption of its Bardarbunga volcano shows what fierce reality lies just beneath the surface. Capitalism and free markets will always find away though, and as RT reports, one travel company is cashing in on the incredible awe-inspiring images by offering tours over the volcano at a height of around 150 meters. As the following stunning clip shows, at $920, it may well be the trip of a lifetime…

As Icenews reports, a fissure eruption has started in the Holuhraun lavafield north of Dyngjujökull. Newly formed crevasses were spotted in surveillance flyovers by scientists yesterday and at that time geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson estimated that the magma intrusion which had been monitored for the previous week was moving only 2 kilometres under the surface. The magma has now breached the surface and the volcanic eruption has been confirmed by scientists in the field. The low frequency tremors suggests the eruption is located outside the glacier. The blaze can be observed in Mila’s webcameras, two of which are trained on Vatnajökull glacier’s Bárðarbunga area.

The fissure is thought to be about 1 mile long and runs northeast / southwest. The lava is thin and fast flowing southeast. This is the fissure eruption, which appears to be available as a multi-called dynamic operation of Dyngjujökli towards the caldera. Continue reading »

In April 2010, it was Iceland’s unpronouncable Eyjafjallajokull volcano which erupted and forced more than 100,000 flights to be canceled on concern glass-like particles formed from lava could melt in aircraft engines and clog turbines.

A year later, in May 2011, ash from Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano forced flight cancellations in Scotland, northern England and Germany leading to further lower “GDP adjustments” across Europe which back then was in desperate need of a scapegoat for its then double-dip recession.

So in what may be good news for Europe once again, now teetering on the edge of a triple-dip recession (in the confines of Europe’s worst depression ever), moments ago Iceland’s meteorological service reported that the island’s Bardarbunga volcano, having been closely observed by volcano-watchers for the past month due to heightened seismic activity, has begun to erupt which means in addition to Russia’s trade war, Europe now has another volcanic eruption to blame its latest GDP contraction on. As the local Met office summarizes, a “small” eruption of lava has occurred to the northeast of the volcano leading the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service to declare that “all air traffic is now prohibited in a large radius around the volcano.”

Iceland’s Dyngjujokull volcano began erupting today, prompting the country to raise its aviation alert level to red, the country’s Meteorological Office said. However, the eruption is still just considered a minor event at this point

Dyngjujokull volcano is not far from Bárðarbunga, which gave us the largest eruption of the Holocene (this era).

An alert level of red — the highest level — indicates the threat of “significant emission of ash into the atmosphere.” Meanwhile, the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police has raised the alert phase to emergency phase.

Icelandic Met Office (IMO) is reporting a sharp increase in seismic activity by the subglacial stratovolcano Bárðarbunga in NW Vatnajökull ice cap​. A seismic swarm has been ongoing since 03:00 UTC on August 16, 2014, and near continuous earthquakes have been occurring since then.

This is the most intense earthquake swarm in this area for years, according to IMO. The last confirmed eruption of this volcano took place on June 18, 1910 (VEI 2), while the largest known eruption (VEI 6) took place in February 1477. In historic times there have been large eruptions of this volcano every 250 – 600 years.